The explosive growth of the Internet and its subset, the World Wide Web, as a publication and interactive communication platform has created an electronic environment that is changing the way business is transacted. To enable users to navigate this unprecedented volume of information, a number of so-called “search engine” technologies have been developed and deployed under various brands, for example, search engine technologies developed by Inktomi, Inc., and Google Incorporated.
Search engine technology is also widely deployed within the context of websites, so as to allow visitors to a particular website to locate documents or features that may be of interest. For example, a large number of corporate websites operating as major communication channels to customers typically employ search engine technology to allow a user, for example, to locate specific technical documents and articles pertaining to specific products.
The use of search engine technology is also widely evident in Internet-based electronic marketplaces or exchanges. Currently, such marketplaces are classified as being business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), or business-to-business (B2B), according to the types of parties among which transactions are facilitated. In the context of a B2B exchange, a potential purchaser for a particular company may, via the online exchange, conduct a search of the inventories of suppliers, these inventories having been published by the relevant suppliers to the online exchange. Similarly, in the B2C and C2C environments, a potential purchaser is enabled to search product offerings utilizing the search engine technology supplied by the relevant marketplace. One form of an electronic marketplace that has proven to be popular is the consumer-oriented online auction marketplace, where suppliers publish product or service offerings to be sold via an auction process.
The value of a search engine technology within the context of such online marketplaces is particularly evident when one considers the number of items, be it products or services, which are being offered by suppliers via such marketplaces. In order to bring a degree of automation to the searching of such vast and ever-dynamic inventory available for purchase on an online marketplace, a number of such online marketplaces offer automated search features. Such automated search features typically allow a user to define search terms and conditions in a search request. Subsequently, at scheduled times, the online marketplace will automatically conduct a search utilizing the terms and conditions, and automatically communicate the results of the searches to the relevant user.
One distinguishing characteristic of user search requests is whether the request requires real-time data interaction. For typical searching conducted over the Internet, for example searching of a corporate website to locate specific technical documents and articles pertaining to specific products, periodic updates to a database containing the items to be searched are sufficient to permit search engines to meet the performance expectations of most users. The currency of data used in such searching is not crucial because users are seeking data that either remains static upon creation or is not used in critical transactions.
For real-time, data-critical transactions, conventional systems may have to sacrifice speed in order to ensure currency of data and accurate transactions. For example, online banking and travel reservation systems require that the contents of their databases be both accurate and current and, therefore, often suffer from traffic-based performance degradation. Furthermore, if searching traffic is high, such online transaction processing systems experience periodically degraded performance or even a halt of the system performance altogether.
In the case of online electronic marketplaces and/or exchanges, the set of challenges is particularly demanding. Online marketplaces must enable currency of data and accuracy of transactions, while at the same time providing highly flexible searching for a large number of users. This flexibility requirement is fulfilled if each entry is comprehensively indexed. However, data indexing is difficult and time-consuming to set up, as well as processing intensive each time a search is performed.
In addition, online marketplaces must also enable users to rapidly transition from “shopping mode” to “purchasing mode.” Online buyers typically view many more items than they purchase. Once a potential buyer makes a purchasing decision, however, the online marketplace must enable the buyer to immediately interact with real-time data to complete the transaction. Any delay may result in reconsideration and/or retraction of the purchasing decision.
As a result, there is a need in the online marketplace environment for a system for conducting high-performance online transaction processing. The system must provide a large number of users with the flexibility of a fully indexed data set as well as currency of data and accuracy of online transactions.